


Majority

by ishafel



Category: The OC
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:35:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eighteen and life to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Majority

The truth is, Ryan's father's been in jail for so long, Ryan can hardly remember what he looked like. The truth is, there are days when he forgets Sandy and Kirsten aren't his real parents. The truth is, Sandy didn't do him any favors when he went looking for Dawn, because of all the things Ryan would rather not think about-and there are a lot of things-his mother comes pretty high on the list.

He was ten the last time he saw his father. Now he's eighteen and it seems like a lifetime ago. He used to watch his father shave sometimes, mornings when his father was mostly sober, when things were going right for a change. Now Ryan's old enough to shave, and looking at his own face in the mirror he can't see anything of his father: he's his mother's son, just like Trey was his father's. There's nothing of Sandy or Kirsten in his face either, of course. There wouldn't be: they aren't related to him by blood.

But he has his father's temper, more so than Trey ever did. He's learning to think, learning that he can't solve every problem-can't solve any problem-with his fists. And he has his father's sense of justice, too. He can never let anything go, anymore than his father could.

He thinks sometimes about going to visit his father in prison. He's thinking about it now, now that he's finally eighteen and he doesn't need anyone's permission. But it's too late, too little too late; if he went now it would be like a slap in the face and his father's always been quick to see offense where none was meant. How would explain why he's never written, never called, how he's become someone else's son? Eighteen, and he's no one's boy now.

He's eighteen and he can't remember anymore who he used to be. But he knows when he was ten he never imagined he'd be where he is now. when he was ten his mother swore she'd never let his father hit him again, and that was the one promise she'd ever kept, to him and to Trey.

So he's eighteen, and he owes everything to the Cohens-the food he eats and the clothes on his back. And next year he'll go to college and maybe he'll end up an architect after all. When he was ten he never thought he'd have a job that didn't require grease under his fingernails, a shirt with his name on the pocket. Maybe eighteen isn't such a bad place to be.


End file.
